Findings: Disappearing Daycare

Finding #1: Map

  • Missouri’s childcare deserts in 2023, by Zip Code Tabulation Area

Finding #2: Number of children in childcare deserts

  • 202,318 children of five and under across Missouri live in zip codes areas that are childcare deserts. This is almost half of the 442,254 children five and under

Population in childcare deserts

Total population

Finding #3: Pandemic changes in childcare

  • From 2019 to September 2020, the number of childcare programs decreased by 30%, leaving 80,000 more children in childcare deserts than the year before. During 2020, the number of children in childcare deserts was the highest it has reached in the last several years
  • The number of programs bounced back sharply by six months later though, and since 2021, the number of children in childcare deserts has steadily towards where it was pre-pandemic

Number of children in childcare deserts by month and year

Number of childcare programs by month and year

Finding #4: Age breakouts of for startup, expansion, or enhancement

  • Of programs that received CRRSA funding for startup, expansion, or enhancement, less than half as many slots were added for infant and toddlers as for preschool aged children

Finding #5: Funding data we recieved shows less money went to deserts

  • Of the total of 114,681,667 dollars in the data we received, less than a third - 25,757,599 - of it went to childcare deserts
  • Our 114,681,667 dollars is about half of the over 230,000,00 DESE has to spend in total through the several different funding sources
  • 203 of 230 million has been awarded so far in total
  • It looks like 170 million in total has been awarded from the grants we received, which more recent data would likely show. Our few months lag is the reason we don’t have all of that

All money in data sent us from DESE

Current numbers for our requests in data sent us from DESE